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KUALA LUMPUR – The ringgit opened flat against the United States dollar today as investors opted for a wait-and-see attitude on the latest economic assessment by the US Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, an analyst said.
At 9am, the local note stood at 4.1840/1875 versus the greenback from 4.1840/1870 at Friday’s close.
Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said it is a week of FOMC meetings that will be held on January 25 and 26, that brings in cautious sentiment.
“Perhaps it’s going to be a hawkish tone, given the improvement in the economy and signs of inflationary pressures which are quite persistent,” he said.
As such, he expects the domestic note to trade in a narrow range of RM4.18-RM4.19 today.
Overall, the local note was traded mostly lower against a basket of other major currencies except the British pound, rising to 5.6706/6753 from 5.6764/6805 at Friday’s close.
The ringgit opened lower versus the euro to 4.7442/7482 from 4.7434/7468, slipped against the Singapore dollar to 3.1101/1132 from 3.1096/1121, and dropped against the Japanese yen to 3.6753/6787 from 3.6715/6741 previously.
At 10.30am today, there were 263 gainers, 392 losers and 347 counters traded unchanged on the Bursa Malaysia.
The FBM-KLCI was at 1,523.70 down 3.36 points, the FBMACE was at 6,135.52 up 11.00 points, and the FBMEmas was at 10,944.47 down 14.78 points.
Turnover was at 1.119 billion shares valued at RM530.748 million. – Bernama, January 24, 2022